


Arrival on Earth

by OverlordRaax



Series: Transformers Corruption [2]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Me trying to make G1 a bit more logical than it actually is, Monster of the Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-06
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2019-10-17 08:26:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17556821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OverlordRaax/pseuds/OverlordRaax
Summary: After escaping from the plagued Cybertron, the Transformers awake four million years in the future, believing themselves to finally be free of the ailment that's caused them to turn into mindless monsters. But as they awake on this strange new planet they discover the disease has followed them here. Almost immediately upon their awakening one of them turns and they now they have to stop this creatures rampage on this new and unknown planet.





	1. Revival

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Pink_Shoes for checking through this chapter, I do hope you all enjoy this.

The Ark remained stationary for four million years. Crashed onto a planet that had no known sentient lifeforms. The planet grew and changed around it, until the ship was almost part of the mountainside it had crashed into, merely an odd shape in the rocky cliff face. Inside its occupants were stuck in their nearly perpetual death state, lying in emergency stasis with no change possible to their predicament.

Their bodies were all scattered in bits and parts. The ships interior was a junkyard of discarded limbs and wires. But the ships internal systems were functioning just fine. Some of the machinery in the medbay was still switched on. Including a machine made to perform large scale field repairs. It’s scanners consistently clicked on automatically, scanning the nearest bodies to it, that being the unconscious forms of Skywarp, Ratchet and Thundercracker from where they had been knocked over in the fight.

Skywarp’s legs had been crushed in a rock fall, and a part of his helm had caved in, but he was the least damaged of all of them. Ratchet had two shots in his shoulder and chest, just narrowly missing his spark chamber. And Thundercracker had been so thoroughly crushed by a rock fall that he was now missing the entire lower half of his body.

The machine had catalogued their injuries for the past 4 million years, listed precisely what needed to be done, but had been unable to do anything. Currently the ship did not have the supplies necessary to perform such repairs. Every thousand years or so, the ship would send its Sky Spy drone to scan the local area for any resources that would be available to facilitate repairs. Always it came back unsuccessful and the occupants were left in their death-like state. The only option now seemed to be to wait until their sparks extinguished.

Then one day, the drone was sent out to discover that technology had intruded its way onto the natural landscape. This time when Sky Spy was sent out it deemed the materials it passed suitable for its purposes. As it passed over the nearest city, it scanned specifications for the local cars, vehicles and objects. It passed an airfield where it scanned the schematics for a fighter plane, and then it started to steal parts.

In the Ark, the machinery finally started to spring to life. The Auto-Stretcher grabbed the nearest mech to its location, and it started repairing him, fitting him with replacement parts and inputting the data for an alt-mode designed for this new world.

 

Skywarp onlined, finding himself in an unfamiliar place. His memory banks unable to remember why he was in a place decorated with such a hideous shade of orange. Then he looked around to see he was in an Autobot medbay, but there was no sign of anyone else manning the medbay.

He sat up on the berth as the auto-repair equipment started to tuck itself away back into the wall. Skywarp looked around. The room was empty, other than the two bodies lying on the floor.

“TC!” He jumped off the berth to see his unconscious partner. As he touched the floor his leg collapsed under him. It felt odd. He looked down at his legs and saw parts of them they were miscoloured. In fact, they seemed to be made out of some odd material, it didn’t feel like standard Cybertronian metal.

“What the pit?” He asked. This was weird. Then he looked over to the repair equipment in the far side of the wall. So that machine had fixed him, but done a pretty simplistic job. He always hated those things. The equipment for large scale battlefield repairs that just cared about putting all the limbs back on as opposed to checking whether they all fit together properly. You needed a proper medic to fix that. Speaking of which…

Skywarp turned his gaze to the busted up Autobot medic on the floor. As much as he wanted to see his teammate up and repaired now, he had to admit letting the medic get fixed up first meant that he might be able to make TC better.

He went over and dragged Ratchet’s body closer so when the Auto-Stretcher reached out again it was him they picked up.

 

Ratchet woke up, feeling incredibly annoyed and grouchy only to then find himself staring down the barrel of a gun.

“Up on your feet, Autobot.” Skywarp said. Ratchet got up off the berth slowly, feeling the odd shifting of gears that meant there were new parts integrating themselves into his systems. He raised his hands above his head as he stood up.

“And what do you want me to do?”

“You can help repair TC,” he said with a grin, “and then you can repair all the other Decepticons.”

Ratchet gave Skywarp such a glare but it only seemed to cause the Decepticon's smile to grow more.

Ratchet started working on Thundercracker as the machine started fitting him with new parts and pieces. The machine was imprecise, and really needed a medic to be going through the repairs as they happened to fix them properly.

Skywarp watched tentatively, though he kept twitching as he watched the machine start changing details of Thundercrackers wing shape and other details.

“What’s your fragging machine doing to him? That’s some weird design it’s giving him.” Skywarp said.

“It’s constructing a new altmode. It seems Sky Spy chose one based on the local planets technology.”

Skywarp’s optics sharpened, though he was still trying to stay serious.

“There’s technology on this planet? I thought it was an organic planet we crashed. Everyone knows organics’ aren’t smart enough to invent technology.”

Ratchet pulled the screen closer. Looking at what the Sky Spy suggested was going to be the new altmode for the seekers. He then also looked at what the chronometer suggested the current date was.

“It looks like this planet has had plenty of time to catch up with us.” he mumbled under his breath.

“What do you mean by that?” Skywarp said. Ratchet just went back to fixing Thundercracker. Skywarp leaned over to see the screen and then he gawped.

“Four million years…”

“Yes.” Ratchet grunted.

“What… what about Cybertron? What if it doesn’t exist anymore?” Skywarp asked.

“I guess we’ll just have to find out.” Ratchet said.

At that point Thundercracker’s optics switched on and the seeker gave a groan. He sat up before looking at Ratchet.

“What? What’s going on here?”

“TC,” Skywarp called.

“Skywarp?” The seeker snapped his head round.

“Come over here. You keep an eye on our prisoner.” Skywarp said. Thundercracker got off the berth and lifted his gun at Ratchet.

The medic glared at the two of them.

“And what do you intend to do with me from here?”

Skywarp grinned.

“You’re gonna fix all of the Decepticons and we’re gonna walk out of here victorious.”

“You expect me to stand by and let you do that?”

“You don’t really have a choice.” Skywarp and Thundercrackers guns were still both on him. “TC, you keep an eye on him. I’m gonna find out who’s still around.”

And with that Skywarp disappeared out of the room in a flash. Ratchet and Thundercracker spent a few uncomfortable moments staring at each other. It was Ratchet that broke the silence.

“So, what do you think you’ll do from here? After the Cons are revived?” Ratchet said.

“We’ll get everyone revived, declare victory over you guys and go back to Cybertron, obviously.”

“What if there isn’t a Cybertron to go back to?”

Thundercracker frowned.

“What do you mean? How long have we been out for-”

There was a flash and Skywarp reappeared, this time holding a cobalt blue mech in his arms.

“I got this for ya.” Skywarp said as he placed Soundwave on the slab. The mech had a minor dent around his chest storage unit, and most of the damage was concentrated on his back. It looked as though he had taken some heavy damage but had tried to shield his chest and his cassette units from harm.

The Auto-Stretcher got to work and started healing him. Skywarp went to find the next one for the recharge slab. It began starting to convert Soundwave to some sort of strange new altmode as well.

His visor flicked on and sat up silently, looking cautiously at Ratchet but then turned to Thundercracker.

“Status Report.” he ordered. Thundercracker gave him the details, explaining what had happened when there was another clap of light and Skywarp reappeared. This time he was holding a huge gunmetal grey body. Both the two seekers started to smile as Ratchet looked on in horror.

“I’m not healing him.” Ratchet said.

“You will, or we’ll go through the entire crew and just execute any Autobots we find on sight.” Skywarp said as he placed the body on the medslab.

Ratchet looked at the two seekers, and then at the third in command.

"Heal him, and mercy will be shown." Soundwave said. Ratchet at least felt he could trust Soundwave's word more than the two grunts.

He huffed as he picked up his tools and started to fix the mech who had nearly wiped them all out of existence on their own planet. However, he could feel the seekers apprehension, there were still two guns pointed firmly at his head, so he brushed aside his concerns and started working.

Megatron was unfortunately robust, there were damages and scars, but most of them seemed to be superficial. He’d probably pull through, unfortunately. Ratchet huffed as he mostly fine-tuned the repairs the machine made.

His face covered with a gash that made his face look like it was twisted into an animalistic snarl. As Ratchet observed him closely he kept feeling concerned, a deep nagging suspicion told him to keep checking for signs of corruption on his frame. He'd be working on one part then convinced he'd see something out of the corner of his optic, but then it didn't seem there had been anything at all.

The medical scanner kept giving odd readings, which would disappear almost as soon as he looked up. He was unsure if he was picking up some sort of glitch in Megatron’s systems, or if the equipment was simply malfunctioning. It made him all the more uncertain about reviving Megatron, he wasn't sure if the Warlord would corrupt the second he was brought online.

Soundwave appeared at Megatron's side. The telepath's hands came to rest on Megatron's helm, and from there Soundwave remained completely silent. Soundwave's field closed around him. He managed to keep out of the way as Ratchet continued to work, so Ratchet didn't say anything. But once Soundwave was by Megatron's side, all the blips and potential signs of corruption started to disappear.

As the machine continued it seemed to be changing Megatron’s altmode from his previous one. It equipped him with a set of caterpillar tracks and gave him extra armour that seemed to be in line with some sort of tank based altmode.

Finally Megatron’s optics onlined and he sat up, his attention first turning to his seekers, who instantly saluted.

“Skywarp, Thundercracker, what has happened? Report.”

“My lord. We… All the Autobots are unconscious, sir, and so were we. After a delay their ships systems started repairing us. So far it’s just us that we’ve managed to revive so far.”

Soundwave stepped in front of Megatron.

"Decepticons waiting to be revived." Soundwave said.

Megatron then noticed Ratchet. Skywarp spoke up.

“I also revived the medic so he could repair you, my lord.”

Megatron smiled.

“Excellent.” Megatron smiled, “Try and find Hook next. With his expertise we can revive more officers at a time.”

“Yes sir.” Skywarp then warped out again.

Ratchet decided to step forward.

"Soundwave has promised me you'll show the Autobots mercy when all the Decepticons are revived, that's the only way you'll get any help from me at all."

Megatron smiled.

“Why, of course Ratchet. We shall be sure to honour that agreement. We will show you some mercy for your help."

The smile he gave made Ratchet feel incredibly uneasy, but for now it felt like he didn't have much of a choice but to obey them. If he didn't they would murder them all anyway, he’d simply have to bide his time. So when the next body was brought in he put his head down and continued working.

 

Once Hook had been revived he began work as well, and in no time at all more of the Decepticons were revived one by one. Eventually nearly the entire army had been brought back online, and the most miraculous thing so far was that there had been no major signs of corruption from any of them, all of them revived without incident.

Once he'd awoken Starscream had gone over to carefully check the monitors that showed any potential signs of corruption lurking.

"Not a single one so far. No signs on the monitor. Maybe we've escaped it, now we're not on Cybertron. Perhaps we've escaped it! Maybe we're cured!"

The Decepticons all excitedly murmured amongst each other, each of them hoping it was true.

Suddenly Skywarp appeared back in the room, looking worried.

“I need help getting Ramjet.” Skywarp said as he appeared back in the room.

“What’s wrong?”

“A whole part of the roof nearly fell on him. Nearly tore out his spark chamber. I need the rubble to be moved before I can get him out of there.”

Megatron looked over to the Constructicons.

“Scrapper, take Scavenger and Long Haul and do what you can.”

“Yes sir.” And they followed Skywarp as he led the way, turning into their odd new alt modes as they left. Afterwards Megatron turned back to Ratchet and Hook.

“Shouldn’t you two be getting back to your work?” Megatron said. Ratchet carried on with finishing the repairs on Astrotrain. He had nearly finished the whole Decepticon army at this rate. He rubbed at his optics. He was starting to feel tired now. After being in stasis so long he was feeling fatigued and low on energy. He needed a break.

But when Long Haul brought in a nearly completely broken seeker into the medbay, Ratchet could see he wasn’t going to get one.

Ramjets armour was buckled in and almost completely destroyed. There was a huge gash through his chest and his spark was visible. He could see several main wires next to the spark had been severed. It was a miracle he hadn’t already deactivated.

Both Hook and Ratchet went over to examine him with grim looks on their faces.

“He’s in terrible shape,” Ratchet said.

“Whatever, you can still fix him,” Skywarp shrugged.

“He’s in pieces. Look at him! You should have brought him here first!” Ratchet shouted.

“I couldn’t get to him! I didn’t even see him cos of how buried he was,” Skywarp protested.

“We need to begin right away,” Hook said.

Ratchet steadied himself, but his hands were jittery. After being forced to work on so many mechs in a row he needed a break and some recharge. But there was a shove against his back and he picked up his tools and started working.

It seemed only a miracle that Ramjet’s spark chamber hadn’t been shattered. The wires looked delicate and fragile, single incorrect incision could lead to his death.

Still, he’d had worse cases over the course of the war. But his hands weren’t as steady as they should have been. He kept trying to focus on the matter at hand. Now that the debris has been removed from Ramjet’s frame they had only a short time to fix it before his frame and spark could just completely give out.

Ratchet’s hearing became more filled up with static as he focused on his work, eventually he started to feel it building up in his sight as well, but he kept trying to go on, he had to.

The wires crossed and Ramjet’s body lurched. His frame nearly fell off the berth, and he knocked over the medical table. He clutched at his exposed spark, looking down at the glowing spark.

His trinemates appeared at his side in an instant.

“Ramjet! Calm down!” Thrust said.

“Stop! It’s alright!” Dirge said.

Ramjet stared in horror at his spark.

“Oh Primus! Primus! My spark! I’m dying!”

“You’re not dying!” Dirge said.

Ratchet grabbed him and tried to hold him down.

“You don’t want to exacerbate your injuries!” Ratchet shouted, “You won’t die if you just lie down!”

But Ramjet wasn’t listening. He mindlessly thrashed about. He just kept staring in horror at his spark.

“Oh Primus! I’m going to die!”

He started convulsing, black bile flew out of his mouth as he choked. Everyone started to panic.

“Somehow hold him down!” Ratchet shouted. Everyone stared in shock. Only Dirge and Thrust leapt forward and tried to push the seeker back down on the berth. Ramjet began violently shaking. Lurching back and forth as black goo kept spewing from his mouth. Ratchet desperately tried to grab a sedative.

Then he saw Ramjet’s hand start to elongate, turning into a long set of claws. He swiped them up and tore into Dirge’s plating, the blue seeker screamed and stepped back. Ramjet lurched and fell off the berth, his body was a mass of shifting gears, as if he was trying to transform. But instead his body simply shifted into odd strange shapes.

His wings became sharper, splitting into pieces, his head became sharper, growing into a larger sharp skewer. His face plates shifting until they became angular and sharp, it snarled and exposed a row of triangular gnashing dentae. He hunched forward on all fours, and then turned round to growl at them.

Everyone stood there in surprise. Too shocked to move or do anything. Then it charged forward, attempting to ram them with its pointed head. As it got close it activated its jet heels and flew into them.

Most of the seekers jumped out of the way but it barrelled into Skywarp and pinned him into the wall. Skywarp grabbed its head, though Ramjet was only inches from skewering him. The black seeker desperately thrashed against him.

“Ramjet! Stop! Stop!”

“Kill it!” Starscream shrieked. “KILL IT!”

“No! You’ll shoot Skywarp!” Thundercracker shouted.

Skywarp disappeared in a clap of purple electricity and Ramjet suddenly smashed into the wall. His head buried a good way into the metal. The corrupted creature then started wildly thrashing and clawing at the wall to get out.

“Everybody fall back!” Megatron shouted. Instantly the Decepticons started to pour out of the room. Megatron keeping his fusion cannon trained on Ramjet at all times.

As Ratchet started to run Starscream pushed him over as he shoved past. As he fell over he knocked one of the tables down with him. As he picked himself he saw all the other Decepticons already had made it to the door. Starscream stood by the door controls, and smiled at him before he pushed the button and the door slid closed, trapping him inside.

Ratchet ran to the door and tried to get the lock open, already it had been sealed, and Ratchet was sure he could hear the sound of laughing on the other side. He let out a few choice curse words to the Decepticons before he turned around to the corrupted monster behind him.

The creature managed to yank its head out of the wall. It shook its head free of debris and then it turned around to face him. It gave a low growl and got ready to charge again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Ratchet needs to escape from the corrupted monster, but it isn't long before the creature escapes onto the strange new planets surface.
> 
> Ramjet's corrupted design can be found here: https://overlordraax.tumblr.com/post/181332339767/designs-for-corrupted-ramjet-his-favourite-thing


	2. Ramjet escapes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things go from bad to worse as the newly corrupted Ramjet runs rampant around the Ark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A big thanks to Pink_Shoes who's been proofreading these chapters for me.

Ratchet stood perfectly still as the creature leapt, activating its jets and launching itself at him. Ratchet ducked out of the way as it went smack into the door, hitting it with such force it tore them off its hinges. The creature rolled into the corridor along with the busted metal, then frantically looked around, seeming uncertain of exactly what had happened.

Ratchet took the opportunity to run, quickly transforming into his new altmode and going as fast as he could. Unfortunately he could hear the monster getting up, the creature giving a huge roar as it started to run towards him.

He turned a corner and the strange new wheels he'd been affixed with skidded and slid, hitting the wall.

"Damn it!" he muttered. Now wasn't the best time to get used to an alien altmode. He sped off again as the corrupted monster was now in pursuit. Ratchet had to lead it somewhere he could contain it, or else it wouldn't stop chasing him until it had ripped him to pieces. He tried to think of where a good place to lead Ramjet to would be...

Ratchet passed one of the cargo holds and his wheels screeched to a halt. He transformed back to root mode and went to the cargo bay door and punched in the code, just as Ramjet also turned the corner, ramming straight into the wall with his head.

Despite the loud and pang and dent it made in the wall the impact didn't seem to phase the creature at all. In fact he simply got up and looked over to Ratchet, the creatures gnashing its gnarled teeth as it looked at him. Ratchet stayed perfectly still, waiting to punch in the last code number. He had to time this perfectly.

Ramjet started charging towards him and as he picked up his speed he started fly straight towards Ratchet, his pointed nosecone aiming straight at his chest.

Ratchet dived out of the way. The plane flying past him and straight into the storage room. Ratchet slammed his hand on the lock and the door hissed closed. Ratchet stepped back, before he heard the creature pound against the door, and again, and again. Ratchet sealed the blast doors as well, just to reinforce the wall and make sure he couldn’t get through.

“That should hold you for now.” Ratchet mumbled.

He looked around, it seemed the Decepticons had already tailed it out of the Ark. Ratchet tried to take stock of the situation. They were on a completely new and alien planet, the Decepticons were completely revived, and Ratchet had to revive as many of the Autobots as he could before a corrupted monster broke through the door and presumably tried to eat them all.

"Well, this is off to a good start..." he said.

 

Ratchet worked fast, hauling Optimus Prime onto the Auto-Stretcher and letting it repair him first. He waited tentatively as the machine continued its work. It seemed to have already figured out an alt-mode for him and it began fitting him with new parts and gears. He kept an eye on the scanner, making sure that this time he wouldn't lose someone when they awoke.

Soon his optics powered on and he sat up. He looked tired and somewhat confused.

"Ratchet? W-what happened?"

"It's a long story Prime, and right now we've got trouble."

 

They revived several of the core troops first, and it wasn't long before a squad of disorientated Autobots had surrounded the storage bay door. Optimus, Jazz, Prowl, Bumblebee and Hound were currently in a circle around the door. They had left Ratchet to continue reviving other mechs, and were currently trying to devise a plan.

There was now a very noticeable set of bumps in the door, the outline of Ramjets sharp head had been bashed into the wall multiple times. And still the noises on the other side continued, the horrible frustrated roars and with each newly made dent the door slowly buckled. It looked like it wouldn't hold out for much longer.

Optimus had ordered a search for anything they could find to subdue Ramjet. There was a mad scramble to find anything they could in all the upturned boxes and random crates dotted around.

"We got something," Bumblebee said, grabbing a net and only two of the stun guns. "This is all we could find."

"A corrupts armour is near impenetrable," Hound said, "How are we going to stop it with just those?"

"Well it's the only thing we got." Jazz said, taking one of the guns.

"If only we had Wheeljack to rig something up."

"Even Wheeljack wouldn't be able to invent something so fast. This'll have to make do. Alright, everyone get ready."

Another heavy thud came against the door. Everyone powered up their guns and prepared to strike. Prowl held the net ready. Jazz stood by the door lock.

"Okay, opening the door in 3, 2, 1..."

The door opened and the creature almost went barrelling forward, as if they had caught it in the middle of a run up to the door. Some of the Autobots dived out of the way to avoid being hit. It flew forward and smashed into the side of the wall. The Autobots fired their stunners but none of the shots seemed to penetrate Ramjet's thicker armour.

It snarled at them and charged forward, attempting to skewer Hound. Prowl threw the net over it. It only stopped him for a moment as it's claws started shearing through the net.

"Someone bring that thing down!"

As Ramjet tore the net off his thrusters activated. He sped past all of them and headed down the long winding corridors of the Ark.

"Ah... oh dear..."

"Quick! After him!" Optimus shouted. They all quickly transformed and followed.

 

The creature smashed its way past several walls before it made its way into the launch bay. It looked around at what to headbutt next before it was dazzled by the bright light spewing from the cargo bay doors.

They had been left open, and were now letting in light, brighter than anything Ramjet had ever seen on Cybertron. He cautiously growled as he stepped towards the open door. There was a sky that was bright blue, unlike the dark star-filled sky of Cybertron. The source of the light was some sort of yellow orb hanging in the sky. Ramjet hated it, and hated being this confused about why the world looked the way it did.

But there was still skies and wind. He took off and flew into the wide entirely wrong world.

The Autobots all arrived a few moments too late to stop him, each of them speedily skidding into the cargo bay and then transforming. Each of them stuck looking at the form of the corrupted jet get further away in the new landscape.

"Uh-oh," Bumblebee said, "We should probably try and sort that."

" _Probably?_ " Prowl shouted.

"Then let's get out and get after him." Jazz said.

"Wait!" Optimus shouted, grabbing everyone's attention. "We are on an entirely new planet. One that hosts sentient life, one with technology advanced enough for Teletraan-1 to able to repair our systems with. At this moment we don't know what the indigenous population is like. They could be peaceful or incredibly hostile. For now, it's best to not be spotted. We will go after Ramjet and subdue him, and make sure he doesn't harm anyone. But everyone is to stay in their alt modes whilst outside, understood?"

Everyone nodded.

"Got it Optimus."

"Alright. Now Autobots, let's roll out."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: The Autobots go in pursuit and try not to reveal themselves to the local population.


	3. Pursuit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Ramjet has escaped the Autobots go trying to look for him, but one of the planets natives has already found him first.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to thank Pink_Shoes for proofreading this chapter for me.
> 
> This chapter will be introducing my redesign of Carly and Spike. I previously drew Carly on my tumblr here: https://overlordraax.tumblr.com/post/183550576762/my-design-for-carly-in-the-corruption-au-shes

It was one of those brisk autumn days in the forests around Oregon, where there was a nice crunch under your footsteps and it wasn't too hot even though the sun was out. On days like this Carly liked to go for a walk. It felt like you could easily get lost far away from anyone. She'd had to take the dog, Spike, with her though. But he seemed quite content to chase after any stick she lazily chucked, so she was practically left alone.

It had been raining earlier, but only a light drizzle which seemed to have finally petered off. She’d been glad she had taken the yellow plastic raincoat her mother had thoroughly insisted on taking with her, even though she always went with blue. Still, she was grateful for it now.

Checking the rain had finally stopped she lowered the hood that had been holding in her black curly afro hair. She adjusted her blue headband, checking it hadn't gotten out of place again.

Spike came back to her with a stick and this time she gave a much heartier throw when she tossed away the stick this time. So far that the dog rain past the mound of grass and disappeared for a moment.

As she’d been left alone she wondered whether she’d be able to find a good spot to sit down and read. Though there was the question of whether the rain had left a patch of ground untouched or not.

Then from somewhere in the distance there was a loud crash. It sounded like some sort of heavy impact and she felt the ground shake beneath her feet. The trees rattled, disturbing several birds from their nesting places. She paused and listened out. Then the crash came again. The ground even rumbled once more.

"What the-?" She whispered. She ran ahead and caught up with Spike. The dog looked on edge. He was growling at the something, though she couldn’t see anything in the distance. Then suddenly he bolted and ran off ahead of her.

"Wait, Spike! Come back!" She shouted, chasing after him. She groaned; that dog would be the end of her one day.

The crash came again, and as she passed the next mound she paused and gasped at what she saw.

There was some sort of huge monster made entirely of metal standing in the clearing. It was hunched over and made up of a weird mess of metal shards and wires. It had sharp metal claws and jagged metal teeth. There was something almost shark like about its huge pointed head, and there was a huge glowing light coming from a hole in its chest.

It seemed to be repeatedly ramming itself into the side of the mountain. It crashed into a huge rock before it picked itself up and ran back before taking a running charge, crashing into the rock and then getting up again. It seemed eager to keep repeating this mindless cycle.

Carly was stuck in shock as she stared at it. She was still trying to figure out what the hell it was. It was weird, she saw bits of its armour, a US Airforce symbol blazoned on a piece jutting out from its legs. The whole thing looked like a living distorted plane.

She couldn’t bring herself to do anything other than stare at it. Spike, however, didn't share her sense of trepidation and began to bark at the huge terrifying creature.

It turned around and snarled at them. Those strange metal teeth started gnashing together. Its red eyes shone brighter before it let out a huge roar that forced Carly to clamp her hands over her ears.

The creature lumbered towards them. The ground beneath them trembling with each footstep it took. She scooped Spike into her arms and ran.

"You stupid dog! Why do you always have to get me in trouble?" She ran as fast as she could but the creature easily caught up to them with its huge strides. It towered over them and swatted the trees away with a huge swipe of its clawed hand.

Carly fell as a tree nearly collapsed on her head. She looked up to see that creature towering over her. Snarling and glaring at her. It reached out a huge bulky set of claws for her, and she finally screamed.

Suddenly there was the honk of car and a red truck slammed into the side of the creature, knocking it over. Carly stood still in shock. Where had that come from?

"Hey! Over here!" She turned round to see a person standing by a yellow volkswagon beetle. The person was dressed in some gaudy yellow and black stripy clothes.

"Quick! Get in!" the person pointed to the car. She leapt up, and jumped into the passenger seat as the other person got into the driver's seat.

"Let's get out of here." she said.

The car started and sped away before Carly had a chance to strap on her seatbelt, but at least they were now speeding away from that creature.

"What was that _thing_?" She asked

"Don't worry about that. For now we just need to get you out of the immediate area."

Just as the driver spoke she saw two other cars appear over the hill. A military jeep and a fancy looking porsche sped past them and towards the direction of the creature.

"Wait, what are those guys doing?"

"They're going to sort out that thing while I get you to safety."

Carly had too many questions right now.

She looked at the driver. There was something off about them. Not just their odd choice in fashion but their eyes seemed to have a gold glow against their brown skin. She also noticed the person wasn't holding the steering wheel, they had their hands by their side. They were sitting calmly even though the car still kept  on driving.

"You're not holding the steering wheel!" She shouted. The person looked first to her, then the wheel.

"Oh. Am I supposed to?"

"YES!" She shouted.

Their hands grabbed the steering wheel. Other than that they remained completely still.

"Is this better?" The person asked.

Carly suddenly no long felt safe in the car.

"I wanna get out of here."

"It'd be advisable if you stayed here until we're out of the danger zone."

She reached for the car door when she heard the click of the lock. She started furiously tugging at the door as she tried to get away from this weird person.

"Please refrain from doing that. I'm just trying to get you to safety."

"What the hell? I'm being kidnapped while there's a giant metal monster on the loose?"

"I will be able to explain later if you remain calm. Safety is our main concern right now." The person, remaining oddly still and frustratingly calm.

"Optimus Prime to Bumblebee, relay your status," a voice came from the radio.

"This is Bumblebee. I picked up a civilian and I am getting them to safety." The driver said to the radio, apparently.

"Okay. We have engaged Ramjet. Focus on the civilian and we will sort him out."

"Roger, Prime."

Carly's confusion turned into a more steely determination as she stared at the driver with suspicion.

"What's going on here? Is this some secret government thing? Who are you? You know something about that weird mechagodzilla monster!"

The driver stared at her, their eyes big and nervous.

"No I don't." They squeaked.

"You do. Don't lie to me. Something weird is going on here." This had to be a weird government conspiracy thing, but a young kid that with their hair in a silly bun wearing bright mismatched yellow clothes didn't really scream 'government agent'.

"I want to get out of here. Right now!"

"Please stay inside. I really am concerned about your safety." There was something about the drivers moments that felt so stiff. Almost robotic.

"By kidnapping me?" She started kicking the car door.

"Hey! That hurts!" The driver said.

Her belt suddenly fastened and she was held down into the seat. She started struggling with that too. Spike started barking. The driver leaned towards her.

"Please do stay calm. I will explain everything to you but you need to stay calm."

"Hey! Someone help!"

Carly looked out the front window and saw the driver was too busy babbling with her he didn't notice as they collided with an upturned tree and the car flipped over on its side.

 

The Autobots had surrounded Ramjet and were circling him. They tried to keep their distance as the corrupt blindly swiped at them. But in their altmodes there was little they could do to fight this creature head on.

"Optimus, we'd be better if we transformed to take Ramjet down," Prowl said.

"Negative. We want to avoid being seen by any native creatures. Bumblebee has already spotted one civilian in the area. We don't know if there could be any more. We have to subdue him in vehicle mode."

"Well, I always did enjoy a challenge." Jazz muttered, firing a grappling hook. The hook went into Ramjet's wing and caused the creature to scream.

"That should at least keep him grounded."

“More grappling hooks. We need to keep him pinned down!” Optimus shouted.

Hound fired another one and it hooked into Ramjet’s shoulder.

“Keep him pinned down!” Optimus ordered, “Just a little bit longer.”

 

Carly had been dazed from the crash, she looked to find herself stuck upside down in the upturned car. Spike was barking at her. She looked around and found the mysterious driver had disappeared. She unclipped her seatbelt and this time when she tried the door it opened. She crawled out. Spike followed alongside her.

She walked away from the car, feeling sore and bruised from the crash. She was trying to figure out where they were so they could get away.

As she limped away she heard a noise. She turned back to see the cars wheels uselessly spinning in the air and the engine revved. Even though she looked and there was no one in the car. She started staggering backwards.

"Hey! Wait!" She heard a voice come from somewhere. It was the drivers voice seemingly coming from nowhere.

She looked at the car in surprise, ready to bolt again.

Suddenly she heard a strange almost alien like noise, and it accompanied the car shifting in shape before her. The cars plating began to shift and move until it was taking up a new shape. She was mesmerised by the change as a moment later the car turned into a huge giant yellow robot that was looking down at her.

"Please don't run! I can explain everything." the robot said.

"You're a giant talking robot...”

The robot looked down at itself.

"Oh, Primus, I really blew this."

 

Just as the Autobots were finally having success with pinning down Ramjet something flew through the air. The Autobots all thought it must have been the Decepticons, but though they resembled Seekers their colours were too dull, they were painted a corpse-like grey. But they instantly caught Ramjet's attention.

He roared a longing call at them and his jets ignited. Slowly he began to take off and Jazz and Hound struggled to keep him from taking off. And the jet lifted into the air, clumsily flying and following the plane. The Autobots were unable to pursue him.

"We lost him," Jazz said.

"We must follow him. He might be spotted by one of the locals. We have to stop him before we're discovered."

And the Autobots went to follow him.

 

Ramjet followed the flying metal things that flew through the sky. He was convinced they were other seekers that he could fly with. He was drawn to them, but the closer he got he realised something was wrong. They had no spark signature, no EM field. As he got closer he realised they were hollow shells imitating the appearance of seekers. The corrupted creature snarled with rage and picked up his speed. His claw reaching for the first shell and tearing it in half.

Ramjet turned his attention to the second one. His teeth chomped down on its wings and something popped out from the cockpit but Ramjet was too busy tearing it apart to notice. He hit the ground with a clang and started to eat up the remains of the shell, munching down on the hard metal.

Then he turned his focus to the last one. It had made significant headway in its escape, but the corrupt was determined to destroy these creatures. He activated his jets and chased after it, determined to hunt them all down.

Then something hit him in the side and exploded, knocking him off his course. The huge corrupt fell to the ground. Ramjet got up, finding itself surrounded by more strange sparkless vehicles. It had fallen into some sort of colony of these hollow shells. There weren’t just fake seekers, but ground based tanks and cars this time. Ramjet roared at them.

"All units! Fire on that thing!"

Ramjet screeched as more explosive charges were hurled at him, this time from all sides. He swiped his arms, the weapons on his arms firing blindly, slicing one of the tanks in half but the more he was fired upon the more he was pushed back.

He went for a blind charge at one of them, skewering a vehicle with his nosecone, but the movement left his open chest exposed to the next row of tanks, and they fired.

This time the round hit the exposed spark in Ramjet's chest, the corrupted creature gave a terrifying howl as it screamed and clutched it’s chest. The spark dissipating before it shattered and Ramjet's body fell to the ground. He landed with a loud crash that unsettled the ground beneath him, briefly obscuring his form in a cloud of dust.

The soldiers all watched, frozen and terrified as they waited for it move again, but it  remained unmoving. When the dust had dissipated the creatures body had nearly turned completely grey. After a long silence one of then stepped forward.

"What the hell even was that thing?" one soldier said.

 

The Autobots all watched from the mountainside as the alien weapons brought Ramjet down. They saw the soldiers surround Ramjet, their guns trained on his unmoving and greying form.

"He's dead..." Hound said.

"They brought him down with no problem..." Jazz said.

"What are we going to do?"

Quite a few of them whispered a few prayers to Primus for Ramjet. It was Optimus who spoke next.

"We can't retrieve the body. We have to stay hidden. Their technology is powerful enough that if we revealed ourselves to this species they could destroy us. It’s more important than ever we don’t let any of them discover about our existence."

"Erm, Prime?"

Optimus focused his sensors on Bumblebee, would was back in his root mode, beside him was a strange organic creature.

"Oh my god, don't tell me all these cars are robots as well?" it said.

"Bumblebee." Optimus growled.

"I'm sorry Prime. It just kinda happened..." Bumblebee trailed off.

Optimus had no idea what they were going to do now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry Ramjet
> 
> Next time: Everyone reconvenes, and the Autobots figure out what path to take from here.


	4. Debriefing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh yay! Finally an update! The Autobots take stock of this new situation before them. Also a thanks to Pink_Shoes for proofreading this chapter.

It had only been a few hours since the Autobots had woken up on this new alien planet, and it felt like a lot had managed to happen already. They had already accidentally made first contact with the native species, but also been shown that this new planet was potentially hostile. The Decepticons had been revived and escaped, though they had lost one of their members to corruption. With both these threats together Optimus felt unsure about how he was going to protect his men. Keeping them safe now felt like it was going to be all the harder to do.

Optimus turned his attention back to the young organic they had met, currently sitting on Teletraan's console. She had been taking this situation surprisingly well. Though initially bewildered she was now avidly asking questions to Jazz about their home and culture. It was a simple sight, but it did manage to give him so hope that they would be able to get on with this planets inhabitants in the future.

A lot of the Autobots were casting inquisitive glances, they had never seen an organic in real life before. Cliffjumper was keeping his distance, worried that the organic contained germs. He kept saying anything could happen if they touched her, despite the fact she had been in Bumblebee's interior and he was fine.

Some of the other Autobots, however were more focused on the tiny quadruped that had accompanied her. They were having fun playing throwing a tiny rubber sphere and watching it chase after it. After years of seeing his men by war, it was nice to see them all smiling.

"So... you're all cars. Why cars?" Carly asked.

"It's disguises," Jazz explained, "Teletraan programmed them for us when it revived us. It's meant to help us fit in with the local population."

"You may have to be a bit more careful about that, a military jeep driving alongside a Porsche is a bit conspicuous."

Jazz laughed.

"Maybe we'll need an instructor on that."

"Is that an offer?" Carly smiled.

"Any assistance you offer would be of immense help," Optimus said, "We only want to live in peace. Our intention was to arrive on this planet to start a new life, away from this war and what happened to us."

"I think I can give you some pointers at least. You guys'll need to do a better job if you want to fit in." Carly said before she turned to Bumblebee, who looked incredibly sheepish.

"I said I was sorry."

Carly couldn't help but laugh.

"But also... that monster that attacked me..."

"That was the result of an infection that has befallen our race." Optimus continued. "We don't know what started it, but many of us started to turn. It was one of the reasons we tried to escape our planet."

"We were trying to find a cure." Ratchet chimed in, "If I hadn't have messed up Ramjets repairs he wouldn't have corrupted," he ended bitterly. Optimus turned to him.

"It wasn't your fault."

Ratchet only shrugged him off. Optimus decided not to carry on in front of the organic, there would be time to talk about this later.

"We only want to survive. Your world might be in danger now from the Decepticons, and know we know that the corruption wasn't just the result of being on Cybertron."

"Sure, I'll do what I can to help," Carly smiled "Besides, this sounds like an adventure."

Optimus smiled. Now, they just had to see what would happen next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We apologise for the inclusion of humans in this fic. I do actually kinda like the G1 human crew (if you take out Spike) and I kinda want to do something with them here. I'm hoping I can make them a fun unit, though the focus will still be the Autobots. The next story will be about robots or some creature feature. There will be another corrupted monster on the loose soon.


End file.
